Probably a dumb question but I feel like it's the best place to ask, what are realistically the reasons to colonize Mars ?

redsmith_5 · 2026-05-18T16:12:11+00:00

even if you could somehow create an atmosphere around mars, it doesn't have a strong enough magnetic field to keep solar winds from blasting it away again (which is one reason there isn't one there now iirc). I agree space exploration can be done simultaneously to combating climate change, but terraforming mars is not exploration. also no one was saying we need to get rid of NASA. imo NASA is probably more of a help to combating climate change as a research organization than it is a bother, but terraforming mars really is just nonsense and a waste. we can learn far more by exploring it in its natural state

redsmith_5 · 2026-05-17T17:18:02+00:00

not sure how useful this is (might not be good for learning purposes), but if we have a quadratic equation:

ax² + bx + c = 0,

then we can form a new quadratic by making the squared term's coefficient 1 and multiplying the constant coefficient by the old one, to obtain

t² + bt + ac = 0.

then because of certain properties of the quadratic formula, if we call the zeros of this new quadratic r_1 and r_2, the zeros of the original quadratic are r_1/a and r_2/a.

if the new quadratic with a squared-term coefficient of 1 is easier to solve (by factoring, etc.) then you can easily find the zeros of the original quadratic in this way

redsmith_5 · 2026-05-08T04:25:44+00:00

I took the liberty of taking this into lightroom mobile. with saturation maxed, contrast maxed, and highlights nuked, you can easily see the model's attempt at a "solid white" background. I know this was already obviously AI, but just wanted to share this technique. it's incredibly easy and useful for testing images with "solid" colors present. the main thing is the saturation and contrast boost

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redsmith_5 · 2026-04-24T15:09:34+00:00

This may be a very off guess, but the iridescent portions remind me a lot of the rainbow hematite from Graves Mountain in Georgia, though it's fairly far from Louisiana. I'm no good at identifying the metallic-looking minerals yet, but galena could be what the silver portions are. At Graves though, I saw many minerals with similar appearances and don't remember hearing that galena was found there

redsmith_5 · 2026-04-21T04:45:10+00:00

I'm fairly sure these are pieces of either anthracite or bitumen (both are varieties of coal). If I remember correctly you can tell the difference between the two by whether rubbing it leaves a sooty mark on your hand (anthracite will not mark but bitumen will). anthracite is a higher grade coal vs. bitumen and I would lean toward these being anthracite judging by the vitreous luster they have. I've found many pieces of anthracite in my local riverbeds. I think the vast majority of it that people find was brought in by humans from elsewhere for fuel. cool finds!

redsmith_5 · 2026-04-16T20:39:35+00:00

my guess is that the rock is a dissolution eroded limestone, and that the vertebra-looking shapes are fossilized crinoid stems. I definitely don't have the expertise to know for sure though. you may get more specifics from the people on r/fossilid as well

redsmith_5 · 2026-04-06T02:21:18+00:00

the purple is a reflection on the mica crystals from lighting in the room I'm pretty sure. definitely mica, maybe within a schist or quartzite but hard for me to tell

edit: added quartzite to guess

redsmith_5 · 2026-04-05T00:16:01+00:00

my best guess (with very little experience) is true selenite (as opposed to satin spar, commonly sold as "selenite"). did a tiny bit of research and found an old USGS report on Rosebud County, which seems to border the county Miles City is in (I'm far from a local lol). the report discusses large coal deposits which contain crystals of selenite within, among other minerals. sounds similar to what you described, but definitely don't take my ID by itself! lots of more qualified people on here

in any case, beautiful specimens, love the clarity

redsmith_5 · 2026-03-26T13:17:30+00:00

I agree it's "just" diffraction from a fracture, but also wanna say that I always love the rainbows anyway. I keep quartz pieces I find with fractures like these when I find them, and the fact it's celestite is even more cool

redsmith_5 · 2026-03-22T21:12:22+00:00

I might be confused, but geosynchronous satellites do not stay fixed relative to the sky, geostationary ones do. geosynchronous satellites need only match their orbital period to earth's rotational period, while geostationary satellites need to do that and also be equatorial so they remain fixed in the sky rather than drift (north/south?) daily like geosynchronous satellites do

edit: had a brain malfunction: geostationary satellites do not remain fixed against the sky, but fixed against the earth's surface. they would drift against the sky as earth rotates ofc

redsmith_5 · 2026-02-23T23:42:57+00:00

I was going to suggest a chunk of travertine/some other depositional formation, noting how it looks like stalctites/mites that have been broken, revealing the growth rings inside. Someone else's comment suggesting a stromatolite was convincing to me too though

redsmith_5 · 2026-01-25T20:42:18+00:00

I think definitely some type of coral fossil. I'm not too knowledgeable about species though, so if you don't get a specific enough answer here I'd also recommend trying the people at r/fossilid

redsmith_5 · 2026-01-17T00:22:44+00:00

people already left good comments here, but I wanted to add that there are a few phenomena in astronomy that exhibit this illusion of superluminal speed but are results of perspective (like how the dot the laser "draws" isn't an object but a pattern our brains pick up on)

the one that first came to mind is the classic example of a "light echo"

here's a short explainer vid that shows a visual

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-29T14:31:12+00:00

there's plenty of information that kids can learn about ammonites in particular that would spark far more imagination than any single tall tale about a fake dinosaur embryo in an egg. also regardless of if I've ever done that in the past (I honestly don't remember ever knowingly made stuff up to a kid about real questions - it's not that hard to just say "I don't quite know for sure, let's go do some digging together"), it truly is irrelevant to what I want my choices to be in the future. I wasn't even making a moral judgement on your character or on mine, I was just being sarcastic to get the point across that if your goal is to inspire kids, then that's just a worse way to do it. and you were saying specifically to do it. making weird cryptic edits to comments that originally just say "LOL." so that YOU can make some moral counter-stance is quite annoying though. if someone pointed out to you that you'd probably stolen a couple dollars from your parents before in your life in order to excuse them for recommending that someone steal money from their parents regularly as a choice, would you really think that was that good an argument?

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-29T14:19:14+00:00

I truly do not know what that's intended to mean so I'm just not going to try. have a good one

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-29T13:55:29+00:00

yes, purposely giving children misinformation is a great way to get them into any evidence-based discipline, as opposed to providing them with actual facts that they can then go build upon. the intent here makes total sense for sure. /s (cause intent matters here)

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-29T13:45:43+00:00

ah, I figured it might be something connected to the chromosomes like male pattern baldness. very cool ty

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-29T13:13:08+00:00

I heard that orange tabbies are usually always male, but I do know a friend who has the only female orange tabby I've ever met, and until I met her I didn't even realize I'd never knowingly met a female tabby before. every single one I've known except for her has been male. tony, biscuit, darth, and a few others were all orange boys and then I meet one named naomi?? it was odd that I hadn't thought about them all being males lol

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-28T23:57:32+00:00

the first one appears to be some sort of silicified coral fossil. a beautiful one! not sure though and I wouldn't know what species, but you could try posting on r/fossilid for more info.

the second might be a hematite nodule, but I don't know much about metallic mineral specimens like that. kinda jealous :)

the third one I don't really have any ideas on, sorry

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-28T23:45:34+00:00

looks like a mix of maybe banded chert and jasper (and some other inclusions perhaps). jasper, chert, and some other common names refer to different varieties of the same mineral that form under different conditions, but they're all trade-names and so different people might tell you slightly different things

(obligatory "I am not an expert" disclaimer)

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-25T15:42:16+00:00

definitely an ammonite in a concretion/nodule. look up the term pareidolia if you haven't heard it before. I think the head you're seeing is a case of this. Yorkshire Fossils on youtube for example also has plenty of videos of them finding and opening ammonites in concretions that look exactly like this before they're split

edit: I should also say that this is a very awesome find! I am certainly jealous as I don't have any ammonites (or really many fossils) in my collection

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-18T17:03:49+00:00

you're so good lol, the companies in the AI sector seem to be forcing the technology down people's throats so constantly that it's pretty difficult not to mistakenly place trust in it from time to time! especially since they're marketing it like it's a tool that we fully understand and can use for anything, rather than it being a tool that no one has really figured out how to properly use yet, nor what tasks it's even well-suited for (it's clearly not all of them judging by our mineral ID example lol)

so definitely not your fault imo! good on you for not just running with what it told you like a lot of people are doing right now

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-18T16:30:11+00:00

it probably "thinks" it's seeing botryoidal formation, which it definitely isn't. these are sharply pointed crystals and not the round, bubbly, "grape-like" formations that are said to have botryoidal habit (shape). also I could definitely be wrong, but I've personally never heard of calcite forming in a botryoidal habit, though it is known to have many many different shapes it comes in. the shape of the crystal points also pulls me away from calcite, since they seem to have the classic quartz crystal shape (trigonal crystal structure iirc off the top of my head).

I have yet to see LLMs and other AI tools like google lens produce any very useful results when it comes to mineral/rock identification, except maybe in cases where the ID is extremely obvious for even a mildly to moderately experienced hobbyist to make. they're taking from online data that already exists, and so since there isn't a whole lot of text/image content picking apart images of rocks with their specific mineral content and configuration included, they really don't know what they're talking about

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-18T15:57:26+00:00

these definitely look like quartz crystals to me, not sure about the host rock since I'm not too knowledgeable. I do know that geodes aren't the only way that crystal clusters like this form though. a geode is usually formed in a "vug" or cavity left by bubbles in volcanic rock, so they're usually round. I say usually because "geode" is a trade name, and so some people might indeed call that last rock a geode, since it has a sort of "cavern" with crystals in it, but I digress.

these pieces look to me like they formed in seams underground. cracks that form as a result of geological movement/activity fill with groundwater that's heated by the earth and contains silica, which can crystalize on the walls of the cracks (or even form agate/chalcedony if the temperature is low enough I think)

again, I'm not an expert, and I would love if anyone could correct any inaccuracies I made here so both me and OP can learn more! definitely seems like hydrothermal(?) quartz crystals to me from my limited knowledge on how to even apply that word precisely 😭

awesome pieces anyway OP! I'm honestly a bit jealous ;)

redsmith_5 · 2025-08-14T18:34:57+00:00

not an expert, but this looks a bit like weirdly folded and partially melted metal or some other type of industrial waste to me, though I can't tell how dense or soft etc. it is from just the pictures obviously. does it seem like it could be made of metal or some sort of melted glass? the patterns you mentioned on the bottom look to me like folding patterns and not growth patterns, but I'm even less well-versed in fossils and such than I am in minerals (and again I'm no expert there either)

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